10 best tents for festivals, starting from £25

Whether you’re going to Glastonbury or Bestival, you'll need one of these if you want a good night’s sleep

(Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash)

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Ready for a jam-packed summer of music and adventure festivals? A good tent is probably the most important bit of kit you’ll buy before you head to off to party hard in a muddy field for the weekend.

Tents designed specifically for festivals are often budget-friendly but not the best quality. If you’re counting the pennies and need a basic place to lay your head, a cheap and cheerful pop-up tent is absolutely fine. But if you can afford it, investing in a good-quality, versatile tent that will also do for camping trips and other adventures is sensible.

Waterproofing

Some waterproofing is essential, especially if you’re off to a festival in the UK. The waterproofness of a tent is usually labelled by the “hydrostatic head” of its outer fabric. Look for an amount in millimetres from 1,500mm upwards – anything over 2,000mm or 3,000mm will withstand heavy rain and keep you dry.

Things to consider

A tent that is easy to erect is handy too – pop-up versions or ones with blow-up “air” poles are a good choice to save you spending hours fiddling with poles when you’d rather be catching a band.

Also check the size and weight of the tent you’re considering – lightweight backpacking tents and pop-up tents are easy to cart through fields. Huge family tents weighing over 15kg can be a pain if you have to walk miles from your car, although they can be worth the effort if you’ve got the space and want a roomy place to hang out if it rains.

Tent size

Be wary of the number of people a tent claims to sleep – ratings such as “two-man” or “four-man” often mean that that’s how many of your mates you could squeeze in sardine-style. A sensible rule is to divide that number by two to find out how many a tent will sleep in comfort – a four-man tent is best suited to two people, an eight-man is perfect for a family of four and so on.

Tents that sleep bigger groups of people mean you can pile all your mates inside, or at least have more room for all your gear. Separate rooms are useful for storage or if you’re sharing with friends, and a closed porch or vestibule is handy for storing muddy wellies and waterproofs while keeping the rest of the tent dry.

We’ve also included a canvas glamping-style tent in our top 10 – you’ll see more and more of these at festivals. And while they are usually less waterproof than nylon or polyester tents, they are ideal for warm summer weekends, as they’re breathable and cool in hot weather. The higher ceilings of bell tents and tipis are also ideal for comfy living at a festival, and you could even pitch together with friends and buy a huge bell tent to sleep all of you.

Tent care

Whatever you do, don’t just leave a tent at a festival site at the end of the weekend (5,500 tents are left at Glastonbury each year alone). Take your tent home, clean it and erect it in the garden to dry. With care, a tent can last you decades of festival fun.

Mountain Warehouse does a great range of basic and affordable festival tents from just £19.99. We like its eye-catching new collaboration with fashion designer Kit Neale though, who has brought his bright and cheery travel-themed prints to this lightweight and compact two-man tent, ideal for sleeping one in comfort at a festival.

There’s a decent groundsheet and the sturdy poles are easy to erect. The tent is unlikely to withstand a torrential downpour, but for under £30 it’s a bright budget option. And you’ll never lose it in a sea of plain tents…

We love the delightfully retro looks of this tall tipi. It impressed us on test too – it’s easy to erect and feels a lot sturdier than other tipis we tried, due to its strong central pole, well-placed guy ropes and six-sided design.

You can comfortably sleep a family of four, or a group of three or four friends inside, and we like the plentiful pockets and hanging points inside for storing belongings. Make it the party tent with a tarp (sold separately, £25) to sit under in the entrance if the heavens open.

Taking little ones to a festival? They’ll love sharing this spacious and simple tipi, which has a tall ceiling and plenty of room for three or four children, or two adults, to bed down in.

Regatta’s Zeefest tipi is also at a great price point, considering it packs in a good waterproofing level at 2,000mm, a tough steel frame and a great thick groundsheet that feels like it’d last for years.

A simple, fuss-free choice and, at under 5kg, a good weight for festivals.

Planning on dancing all night and sleeping all morning? You need a blackout tent. Lined with materials that keep 99 per cent of daylight out, the Coleman Blackout ensures a good night’s (or morning’s) sleep.

It doesn’t overheat, either – there are well-placed vents that can be opened even in the rain. This tent is well-sized for two people, with a generous porch and a peaked pole for extra head height, as well as large plastic windows.

The Blackout is waterproof to a whopping 4,500mm – good if the forecast is looking stormy all weekend. Currently reduced to £99, this is a great all-rounder for under £100.

You can always rely on Vango tents to perform brilliantly everywhere, from festivals to wild camping adventures. The three-man Beta is rather Tardis-like – it doesn’t take up a lot of space but inside there’s a bedroom that will comfortably fit two people and a roomy protected porch for storing all your belongings.

We like the plastic window in the porch for extra light, the colour coded poles, which make for quick and fuss-free pitching, and the plentiful pockets and hooks.

Partying with a big gang? Our top pick for larger groups is the roomy Asaklitt Dome. This geodesic beauty is categorised as an eight-man tent but we’d suggest sleeping six plus gear, or four with tons of living room (kids will also love its spaceship-like looks).

Big doors mean you can ventilate the tent easily on hot days, too. The dome is easy to erect in 10-15 minutes and the waterproof fabric feels like great quality. The zips are on the flimsy side, so go easy when using them. At £250, this is a bargainous and generously sized gem.

Forget chugging cider in a muggy tent – a new breed of walking, running and wellness festivals are celebrating the joys of getting into the great outdoors. If you’re off to an active event, MSR’s small but beautifully formed Zoic 2 is the ideal tent companion.

MSR tents stand out for their fantastic quality and are worth the spend – the light-as-a-feather Zoic is fully waterproof, simple to erect and dismantle, and has two roomy porches on each side of the main compartment for storing gear.

It’s one to invest in for future camping and backpacking trips as well as festivals.

Roomy glamping tents are brilliant, but at a festival where space is at a premium you might struggle to find somewhere to put them up. Enter the Robens Fairbanks tipi, the ideal compromise between cotton glamping tipi and sensible compact camping tent.

It takes a few tries to erect it quickly but once you do the central pole means there’s plenty of room inside – ideal if you’re tall. If you’re heading to a festival abroad, you’ll also find the cotton and polyester blend of the tent fabric much cooler to sleep under in hot weather. This is a great quality option for two or three people.

It may be the heaviest tent we tested at 15.7kg but the Vango Santo is also the best if your budget will stretch, and it’s worth carrying all the way to your camping spot if you want a seriously plush place to live in for the weekend.

It sleeps two or three adults in comfort, or will fit a family of four with smaller children. You can stand up fully inside, and there’s plenty of room in the bedroom for a blow-up airbed.

We were most impressed by how easy it was to erect – blow-up “airbeam” poles are quick and simple to inflate and deflate. The Santo is also waterproof to a very hefty 4,000mm. So if you want to invest in a great tent that’ll do everything from weeks of summer camping holidays to withstanding a downpour and making a rather palatial home at your next festival, this is the tent to pick.

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